The Crescent Strikes

The Pacification of Earth, Volume 2

By: Dean Warren

Narrated by: David Dietz

Part II, The Crescent Strikes: As 2100 dawns, revolutionary America is governed by a triumvirate of "welfies". The military member of the trio is a young ex-Marine, Ben Bjorn. While China demands food relief and threatens war, Europe pleads for military help against the Turkish-led Moslems. As if those two perils weren't enough, rebellion simmers below the feet of the Welfie government.

Copying Eisenhower's example in the Cold War, Bjorn leads an American army to Europe's defense. In early spring, the Moslems cross the Bosphorus into Europe and throw back part of Bjorn's army. He fights a series of battles, including one involving an Achiever-led insurrection.

Betrayals and attempted assassinations deepen the fog of war.

©2008 Dean Warren (P)2014 Dean Warren

Not my favorite

This series has not been my favorite. That being said, it is still gripping and full of action, which is what propelled me through the story. I still have issues with the way women are portrayed in the book. They all seemed a bit incompetent and the voices on the audio were screechy. And as in the first book, the story was a bit predictable at times. I think this would be a good fit for fans of politico-military thrillers.

A Narrator Who Doesn't Try Too Much

Where does The Crescent Strikes rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

The title represents one of my pet peeves. Mr. Dietz stayed within himself. Not too dramatic, not to monotone. Good Job. The story seems a a bit of a stretch in reality, but NOT impossible. The characters are interesting and there are some fun story twists. I will follow this series.

Someone needs to research contraception

This book picks up a littler over a year after Book 1 ended. Benjamin Bjorn is still a man of power and still married to an Achiever (Jenny) who got pregnant and had his child. While North America has settled somewhat into the new regime, rumblings are occurring across Europe – their Welfies want the same things. Also, the Middle East and Asian countries are wanting to expand their territories into Europe, needing more resources for their large populations. War is imminent.

Honestly, I was lukewarm on Book 1 and I am the same with Book 2. There’s still a good pacing, the story line having a nice mix of politics, action, some quiet contemplation, and sexytimes. I enjoyed the various betrayals as that mixed things up a little. Bjorn is no longer the underdog but he still champions them.

Again, the plot lines were pretty predictable. I never worried that our heroes would be killed or that the bad guys would get away unscathed in some manner. We did have several more cultures involved in this book (which I liked) but their portrayals in the book relied heavily on dated cultural stereotypes (which made things predictable and a little boring).

There were some additional ladies in this book and we even had a female Prime Minister for the UK. However, nearly all the plot decisions were made by men and most of the women were incompetent. Contraception, or rather, the lack of it, came up several times throughout the book. The responsibility to hold off on reproducing was always laid at the woman’s feet. This struck me as an oddity for this story: The world as a whole is over populated; there are several types of contraception available to both men and women today; this is set in the near future where there would be more types of contraception available if anything. So I didn’t get why our hero Bjorn was putting all the blame on Jenny and none of the responsibility on his own shoulders. It was a recurring theme throughout the book and it struck me as a dated idea. Perhaps even a sexist one.

One of our female characters does get to carry the day at the end, which was nice. However, it felt more like an apology for making the ladies so inconsequential for 1.8 books. I still liked Uncle Will, though we saw less of him in this book. There were a handful of other characters that had their moments. Over all, it was a little more disappointing than Book 1, American Revolt.

I received this audiobook at no charge from the narrator in exchange for an honest review.

The Narration: David Dietz did a fine job with this book. It called for plenty of accents, had a sizable cast of characters, and required emotion from time to time. He did a really good job with all the various accents. He also had distinct character voices for all the different characters.

The crescent strikes

Any additional comments?

A great follow up audiobook This audiobook describes technology and events that are completely believable. Good writing, lots of suspense, and human weakness. The narration added excitement .